Hotels & direct booking
For independent hotels, penziony and rentals: what Booking.com actually costs, what changed now that parity clauses are gone in the EU, and why guests leave an official site to book on the OTA. Written from the website side, with our own sample hotel sites as the examples.
The hotel website teardown: why guests leave your site to book on Booking.com
A guest finds the official site, then books the same room on Booking.com. Six things we look at on a hotel website's first screen, rooms page and book path, and what each one is costing you.
Read articleWhat Booking.com actually costs an independent hotel in 2026
The headline commission is fifteen percent. The real cost per stayed night is higher once programmes, payment fees and a cancellation rate twice that of direct bookings are counted. The maths, and when the OTA is still worth it.
Read articleBooking.com's best-price clause is gone in the EU. Your website has to show it.
Since December 2024 Booking.com cannot stop an EU hotel offering a lower rate on its own site. Most hotel websites still look as if it could. What changed, what still pulls the other way, and where the direct rate has to live on the page.
Read articleBooking.com or your own website? The answer for a Czech penzion or a Prague hotel
A false dilemma that costs Czech accommodation owners money. What Booking.com costs in the Czech market, why Google shows Booking above you for your own name, what Seznam is still for, and what a penzion's own website has to do to earn its keep.
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